SEBI Announces Measures Including Easing The Listing Norms To Help Indian Startups Attract Big Investors

In a big boost for the Indian start-up community, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has announced a series of measures making it easier for start-ups to list on its Innovators Growth Platform (IGP) for fund-raising, reports Hindu Businessline.

SEBI has said that instead of two years, eligible investors, mostly institutional players, will be required to hold 25 per cent capital only for one year before the issue. It has also hiked the pre-issue shareholding from 10 per cent to 25 per cent.

The move is likely to encourage more big investors to fund start-ups in the expectation that they could list in a year.

Furthermore, SEBI has allowed the startups listing on IGP to allocate up to 60 per cent of the issue size on a discretionary basis (with a lock-in of 30 days on such shares), before the issue opening to eligible investors. Earlier, the same was not allowed.

This gains significance, as out of about 50,000 start-ups registered with the government, not many have listed with IGP so far.

Meanwhile, SEBI has also tightened the de-listing rules to allow transparent price discovery. It has also done away with the list of restricted activities or sectors from the definition of venture capital undertaking to provide flexibility to Alternative Investment Funds (AIF).